Maison Bonfils

Photo studio in Beirut founded in 1867 by Félix Bonfils (1831–1885). He photographed the cities and sites of the eastern Mediterranean including Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Greece. The studio was a family owned and run business involving his wife and children, as well as hired assistant photographers. It became a major supplier of commercial travel views, with distributors in Alexandria, Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, Port Said, Paris, and Basel. The Bonfils children ran the firm from his death until 1909 when it was sold to Abraham Guiragossian, who continued using the Bonfils name into the 1930s. The studio later became known as F. Bonfils et Cie.